Trio's has its own in-house jazzman

December 16, 2007|JACK WALTON Tribune Correspondent

SOUTH BEND -- Customers at Trio's Restaurant and Jazz Club in South Bend might walk in and find a hip jazz group playing Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train." The drummer will provide swinging rhythm for prospective dancers and also mix in little rim shots and unexpected fills to spur on the soloists. The singer will deliver the familiar lyrics with sass and flair. The alto sax player will negotiate those chord changes, playing the melody and extrapolating it with his own creative ideas. The piano player will feed chords to the singer and saxophonist, as well as embellishing the jam with his own flourishes and solos. A bass player's role in this type of band is complicated: He must pin down the tempo with the drummer and pianist, as well as respond melodically to the improvisations of the singer and the reed man. In this case, the bassist is Herb Wilson, and he will have a lot to take care of on and off the bandstand: He also is the co-owner of the club. Wilson's been playing the bass since his college days at Indiana University South Bend, and has spent more than 30 years playing with groups in a wide variety of genres. He even had a few gigs in the 1970s at the club Vegetable Buddies, in the same space that Trio's now occupies. The Herb Wilson Ensemble, the name of the boss' current jazz band, features drummer Lannie Turner, saxophonist Rich Cohen and pianist Roger Harris. Singer Janet Hines Norris fronts the group on most occasions. Wilson says he expects his band to headline at the club four to six times this month, including New Year's Eve. "This group has existed for about three years, so it's not something we pulled together just for this," he says. This fall, at a gig at South Bend's Club LaSalle, the quartet (minus its singer) was in fine form, and provided a sneak preview of how things will go at Trio's. The group played such standards as "How High the Moon" alongside such jazz vehicles as Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time" and Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island." Friends and fellow musicians occasionally would take the stage as well, giving the night a jam-session effect. Drummer Ron Monsma replaced Turner for a couple of songs, and trombonist Michael Cobbler sat in for a few numbers that gave the impromptu quintet a feel similar to Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Cohen's inventive, legato alto playing suggested the great Lee Konitz, and the rhythm section cooked up some syncopated patterns that were daring while always mindful of groove. Wilson says that the spirit of spontaneous improvisation was already in place at the very first jam at Trio's, which featured an unplanned guest. "A fellow just walked in off the street, a flute player who was in from out of town on business, and he played for a couple of hours," Wilson says. "That's what this is all about. It's improv, impromptu, and it worked out well."